Tess
by wholocked4
Summary: What if... the cube, the powerful Tesseract, wasn't a cube but a girl. A poor alien girl who misses her home planet and is sick of being exploited. And not any girl, but YOU, dear reader. Rated M for some language. Loki/Reader fic.
1. Awake

Awake

_The Tesseract has awakened…_

Your eyes fly open. Your skin feels strange: it is pulsing with fiery power but you are shivering. You were pulled out of the frosty ocean. In human time, that was seventy years ago. For you, all powerful you, it was hours ago.

Your memory is foggy. You barely remember Hydra, but you know something for sure: they exploited your power. And apparently, now again.

Your arms are wired to a silver circle. You are hovering a couple of feet from the ground.

You are angry. So, so angry. With a cry of rage, you activate your power and send blue energy waves at whatever you can reach. The silver ring contains them. You want to cry. Cry and return to your home planet. You don't like humans.

"Talk to me, Doctor," a man says. He walks into your line of sight. Black-skinned. They prefer to be called Afro-Americans. Seventy years ago, they were struggling for respect. Now, he almost glows with power. Not literally, like you. He seems to like the color black. Black coat over black clothes with a black eye patch.

Doctor. You invert the flow of the cables painfully inserted into your arms. You are no longer feeding the monitors information. The monitors are feeding you. Doctor. Healer. Wise. PhD.

"Tesseract is misbehaving." Doctor Selvig, your warden.

"Is that supposed to be funny?" Director Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D.

"No, it´s not funny at all. The Tesseract is not only active, she´s… misbehaving." What is that phrase that humans use? 'Bitch, I might be?'

The annoying little humans continue arguing. Fury says Selvig should be ready. Selvig says he isn´t. Well, isn´t he a waste of everyone´s time?

"Nothing harmful, low levels of gamma radiation," the Doctor explains.

"That can be harmful." If they don´t leave you alone, it can be _very _harmful, thankyouverymuch.

"Where's Agent Barton?"

"The Hawk? Up in his nest, as usual."

Oh, yes. The Hawk. You can feel his gaze piercing you from up high. You are not sure if he is wary or perverted. You really hope it´s the first one.

Fury is now arguing with Barton. The man has a _really _bad temper.

You idly close your eyes and let power waves go up and down your arms. This is slowly moving from annoying to utterly tedious. A scientist complains about this burst of energy. Good for him, but you ain´t stopping.

Fury´s and Barton´s conversation suddenly grabs your attention once more.

"If there was any tampering, sir, it wasn't at this end." Tampering? You can feel it now. You are not awake just because you felt like it. Someone activated you. You can hear his soothing voice speaking, whispering into your ear. Encouraging your rage. Promising your freedom.

"At this end?

"Yeah, the girl can create a doorway to the other end of space, right? The doors open from both sides."

Your chest explodes in a combination of pain and pleasure. The waves you are creating are too powerful for the silver ring to contain. They spread forwards and form a circle over a platform. It _is _a door. You can see space and stars. Oh, beautiful stars.

And a shape. The shape of the man who is here to free you.


	2. Loki

Loki

Director Nick Fury, always an ignorant human, calls towards the man, "Sir, please put down the spear!" It´s obviously a scepter, fool.

The mysterious man looks up. His eyes look sunken and have dark bags around them. With pity, you wonder how tiresome it must be to harness your power. He raises his scepter and shoots a flash of light quite like your own. The burst of beautiful power hits Barton and Fury, sending them flying through the air.

A group of loyal (yet stupid) soldiers try to shoot the new arrival, but their mortal bullets are no match for his power. The man leaps with a feline ability towards his attackers and, in swift motions, runs his spear through their hearts.

Barton has now regained his balance and unsheathes his gun. The mysterious arrival with long raven hair grabs the Hawk´s wrist before the agent can shoot.

"You have heart," he whispers in that soothing voice that melts your knees and presses the spear to Hawkeye´s chest. With awe, you watch as Barton´s eyes change from a normal blue to completely, whites and irises, black to an unnatural shade of blue. _Your _shade of blue.

The agent lowers his gun, and you know what has happened to him. You can feel pieces of your consciousness inside his brain, locking his morals away and replacing them with your own. Making your plans, your dreams, his.

The beautiful man continues to join other scientists and soldiers to your cause. You tremble with joy as their weak will bends and twists in any way you please.

Your happiness is cut short by Director Fury, who silently approaches your station. You try to warn the new arrival, but your voice doesn't respond. Fury unceremoniously and painfully rips the cables from your arms, and you fall to the ground.

The Director hauls you towards the exit, but you bite and scratch. Once more, you attempt to scream but no sound comes out. You grope at your throat and weep silently for the loss of your precious voice.

"Please don´t," the man orders softly. "I still need that."

_Need __that__? _A feeling of dread settles it the pit of your stomach. What if the mysterious man wants to use you, just as Hydra did and S.H.I.E.L.D. is doing? Tears well up in your eyes once more. A buzzing sound in your ears makes it impossible to hear the voices of the people around you, but you couldn't care less.

When the buzzing finally stops, you hear the man with raven hair reveal his identity at last. "I am Loki, of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."

"Loki? Brother of Thor?" Selvig inputs.

The man, Loki, grimaces, obviously uncomfortable with being identified as the brother of Thor.

"We have no quarrel with your people," Director Fury argues.

"An ant has no quarrel with a boot," Loki replies calmly.

"You planning to step on us?"

"I come with glad tidings, of a world made free," your raven-haired savior-or-abductor offers.

"Free from what?"

"Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart..." With that Shakespearean phrasing, Loki presses his scepter to Selvig´s chest and possesses him, too, with your power. "You will know peace."

"Yeah, you say peace, I kind of think you mean the other piece."

You look up towards the ceiling of the facility. There are left over tendrils of your explosion that are curling and withering, weakening the concrete. You frantically point towards it, trying to capture the attention of one of your teammates.

The reformed and honestly bettered Clint Barton cuts thankfully notices your gesturing, "Sir, Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow. Drop a hundred feet of raw material, he means to bury us."

"Like The Pharaohs of Odin," Fury jokes humorlessly.

Selvig inspects one of the monitors and reports the situation to Loki. Not good, not good at all.

"Drop him," he commands to the Hawk.

Barton shoots at Fury and the Director falls letting go of your arm. You tumble to the floor. Barton gruffly picks you up. "Gently," Loki sneers. Hawkeye releases his grip on your arm and lets you walk in front of him.

You shiver and realize for the first time that you are naked, your creamy white skin expose. You awkwardly attempt to cover yourself. Loki notices and mutters an order to one of the soldiers. Soon enough, you are being offered a black S.H.I.E.L.D. coverall. You pull the slightly itchy garment on.

"Tesseract, isn't it?" your savior asks politely as he pushes a tuft of your pale blonde/blue hair behind your ear. His green eyes gaze into your bright blue ones.

You nod uncomfortably. That is your name, alright, but you don't like it. It´s too long, too elaborated. You make a chopping gesture with your hands.

"Cut it?" Loki translates and hesitates before answering, "Tess… Tess!"

You nod happily.

"Can´t you speak, dear Tess?"

Your gaze drops. You do not know when you became mute, but you wish you did. Maybe if you knew the cause, you could fix your voice.

"I'm sorry; I did not mean to offend you, sweet lady." You feel your cheeks glower a shade of pale blue. "Don't you worry; we will find a way to communicate."

Your features light up. You had learned several things from the S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors. Your hands flutter about as you try to imitate the human sign language, but the raven haired man stares at them in confusion.

You huff and stomp towards one of the desks. After searching for a while, you find a notepad and a pen. Your brow scrunches in concentration as you write in the human language known as English. Their letters were easy to learn, too easy and simple like anything else the human mind had created.

You pass your message to Loki and he reads it out loud. ""You are not like them"."

You point towards Selvig and Barton, and Loki laughs. "That is because I am not human, my dear."

You cock your head in a silent question that doesn't need to be written. _What are you, then?_

Something hardens in your savior´s face. "We´ve got to keep moving."

You lower your head in shame, knowing that you had asked the wrong thing. You follow your team through several hallways of the military base. When you reach the vehicles, a woman you do not recognize asks, "Who's that?" She glances towards Loki.

"He didn't tell me," Barton lies.

Suspicion clouds the woman´s gaze, but she lets you pass. You are about to step into the cargo box of one of the trucks when you here the stranger´s communication device crackle.

"Hill! Do you copy?!" Fury. "Barton has turned!"

Your eyes widen in shock. Loki pulls you to a sitting position next to him just as Barton and the Hill woman draw their guns and hell breaks loose.

As much as you hate humans, you hate violence. You screw your eyes close and rest your head on Loki´s shoulder. There are explosions, screams, glass breaking, and lots of shooting. After a moment, Loki slips away from you and you hear the sound of his scepter firing blue bolts at S.H.I.E.L.D. trucks.

You count to ten. To one hundred. To such a large number you lose count. Your breath isn´t even until you feel Loki´s body next to you once more and he kisses the top of your head. His body is freezing cold yet reassuring.

Slowly, you let the feeling of freedom wash over you and fall asleep.


	3. Something human

**A/N:** Heeeeeeyyyes, I´m a horrible human being. I am terribly sorry, but I´m having a hard time finding free time. So so sorry. AAnyway, I want to thank SetPhasersToFun, Nira, Leila, jrr, citylights, OswynneLeighAldren, and MarinasDiamond for all the lovely reviews 3 Enjoy!

"Tess… we´re here."

You open your eyes drowsily. You are standing before the entrance to the sewers. You shoot Loki a questioning look.

"It's safe. And kind of nice," he promises. "Couple of rats, human wastes… a palace worthy of a king."

You giggle soundlessly and, with a jump, get off the truck. Your feet make squishing noises as you take a few steps into the sewers. You look down at your bare feet and wiggle your toes.

"Unacceptable," the man with the raven hair mutters. He suddenly slips his arm under your armpit and lifts you up, your feet resting on his other arm.

You roll your eyes and he laughs.

"I was joking." He carefully puts you down. With a flick of his hand and a halo of green light, a pair of black leather boots materialize on your feet.

You pat the pockets of your coverall until you find your notepad and pen. "Thank you," you write.

He bows in a medieval fashion and you blush.

Clint Barton, among other kidnapped agents, leads your team deeper into the sewers. They all stop and start unpacking in an empty cave marked by a single steel table.

Once more, a shiver runs down your spine as you imagine all that they could do to you.

Loki´s voice breathes into your ear. "Relax, my lady. This is not meant for you." A hand is wrapped around your wrist and you are gently led towards another cave.

If someone had blindfolded you and showed you this room, you wouldn't have believed it was within the sewers. The cave lacks the humidity and stench that marks human waste deposits. Instead, you smell… is that lavender? It is furnished beautifully: a huge, comfortable bed, a mirror with a thousand little drawers around it and a cute little bench before it, a bookcase packed with several different volumes; the list goes on and on forever.

"All mine?" you write on your notepad.

"All yours," Loki answers with a smile.

You dash forward and shrink the space between the two of you, wrapping your arms around his thin frame. He hesitates for a moment, as if he has forgotten how to hug.

After a second, he pushes you away softly. You notice the flush creeping up his cheeks. The man clears his throat, "What do you want to do now?"

"Something…" you pause, tapping your chin with the back of the pencil, "…human."

Loki reads what you have written and frowns. "Really? Aren't they… you know, boring?"

You ponder for a moment over the information you got while squeezing S.H.I.E.L.D.´s monitors dry.

"They sometimes order food using a phone-thingy. Thai food. Yummy food."

"Alright… do _you_ know how to use a telephone?"

You frown. You were not expecting that question. You open and close your mouth stupidly (nothing would come out anyway) and grumpily scribble No.

Loki laughs encouragingly, "We can learn, don't worry yourself." He opens the beautifully carved wooden door and calls, "Barton!"

In a matter of seconds, the summoned agent has arrived. "Yes, sir?"

"Phone," the man replies, holding out an open hand. Hawkeye frowns in confusion. "Pho-one," Loki repeats with a sing-song voice as he nods towards his palm.

"Oh!" the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent searches through his pockets until he retrieves a thin piece of glass. "Stark tech," he announces proudly.

"Good for you," your rescuer mutters. He (awkwardly) taps the glass, and shapes and colors appear. You silently gasp in admiration. Clint Barton is still standing next to you, waiting for gods-know-what. Loki stares at him for a moment before, annoyed, ordering, "Shoo." The Hawk flusteredly bows and dashes back towards the other cave.

"Now," the emerald-eyed man clears his throat, "phones. I believe you need a special numbered code."

You cock your head to the side. "You are different around them," you write in your precious notepad insistently.

"You can't show any type of weakness before your soldiers, dear Tess," he explains. He smiles warmly and looks at the phone once more. "It says 'search' here." He taps the box and an alphabet emerges. You hold up your notebook so he can copy the name.

"T-H-A-I food. 'No results. Search the Net?' it says." Loki turns to you and you shrug for an answer. "Search the Net," he instructs decidedly.

The "Net" apparently knows everything. It is probably an earthly Oracle. Soon enough, you know the code to contact the Thai food provider and what (s)he has to offer.

A question suddenly worries you. "Won´t they track us down and tell Fury?"

"Lucky for us," he says and adds in a hushed whisper. "I am the God of Mischief."

You gape at the man. You have met heroes and scholars and priests and priestesses but never a god.

"Really?" you scribble before crossing it out, realizing how rude it sounded. "I did not know," you correct.

"Yes. God of Mischief and Lies… and Prince of Asgard." Loki pauses, sadness and uncertainty clouding his beautiful eyes. "I think."

The tiny part of your brain that hasn't taken the task of idolatrizing Loki screams that you cannot trust a god of lies, but you ignore it completely and smile up at the man who is currently contacting Thai food providers.


End file.
